Those joining the jam-packed line wrapping around Republic Biergarten each weekend soon will need to find another queue to join. 

The closure of Monterrey Mexican Restaurant, Republic Biergarten, Five Guys and 101 Smoke Shop will come this May. They will be torn down to make way for an $80+ million new student housing project, LOCAL Columbia, at the northeast intersection of Senate and Park streets.

“I have so many memories at Biergarten,” University of South Carolina junior Sophie Bennett said. “It’s such a fun and easy way to hang out with people. And I’m very sad that it’s going.”

While LOCAL Columbia is expected to open Summer 2028 as another housing option close to the popular downtown area of The Vista, locals and USC students will miss the site’s previous tenants. 

“I can see how it’s necessary, because they’ve over-admitted so much that people are going to need housing in the future,” Bennett said. “But, also, do we need 10,000 apartment buildings?”

USC senior criminal justice major Zoey Loncon has been a regular at Monterrey Mexican Restaurant since her sophomore year.

“They’re turning it into an apartment building,” Loncon said, her shoulders dropping. “We have enough of those. We don’t have enough good Mexican restaurants.”

Monterrey’s plans to shut its doors in The Vista around May 15. But the Mexican restaurant has a second location in Cayce.

“It doesn’t even compare,” Columbia resident Karen Boston said. “We went to another Monterrey’s and it was like, where’s the taste, where’s the flavor, where’s the personality, where’s the love? You can’t taste it. Here we come in, we sit in our regular spot, they know what we like.”

In hopes of keeping some of the same personnel and clientele, Monterrey’s is waiting on approval to move only two blocks away to 700 Gervais St., where Tsunami Sushi Restaurant is now. Monterrey’s manager Francisco Mora said that if approved, the business could reopen there in just over three months. 

“If they change locations, I’m good with that,” Boston said. “As long as they keep the food and the people, I’ll go anywhere they go.”

A.C. Flora High School students Taylor Pagan and Jada Jones work at Five Guys and said they will be moved to the Forest Acres location. Though they won’t be losing their jobs, Jones said the new location won’t be the same. 

“I’m going to miss this store, and my job,” Jones said. 

For Five Guys, The Vista closure will not be permanent. LOCAL Columbia plans outline a single retail space on the first floor that will be home to the burger chain when the building opens in 2028. 

The City of Columbia Planning Commission on Dec. 18 approved the site plan for a 7-story, multi-family residential development, parking garage and retail space designed by ESG Architecture and Design. LOCAL Columbia will contain 221 apartments, a pool and lounge, a parking garage and retail space. 

ESG Architecture and Design also is working on VERVE Columbia, a similar student housing development at the intersection of Blossom and Assembly streets. Apartments are available to lease in August 2026, with units starting at $1,385 a month.